Coach Andrea

Coach Andrea’s Intro

If you are thinking of starting a business partnership with another individual, this week’s Tip is for you. In addition to analyzing the viability of the business idea, it’s key that you address how the two of you will work together.

Quote of the Week

“Successful people in this world are those who get up and look for circumstances they want. If they can’t find them, they make them.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

How to Have a Successful Business Partnership

By Andrea Novakowski

You and your friend have a great idea for a business. Your business plan is already half done. You can’t wait to get started: what could be better than working with a friend every day?

To launch a successful business with another person, you need more than a business plan. You have to plan your approach to working together, too.

Here are some questions to ask yourselves before you rush headlong into business with your friend – or with anyone else, for that matter!

1. Why is a partnership right for this business? Are you getting into business together for the right reasons or the wrong ones? A right reason might be that you’re compatible and have the same vision for the business. A wrong reason might be your fear that you can’t do it alone.
2. Do you share the same goals, objectives and values? Make sure the two of you are in complete alignment. Be open and clear and have lots of honest discussions. This is your chance to find out how well you two communicate.
3. What has your past experience with partners been like? Think about the kinds of people you work best with. Everyone has a different style. Some people are workaholics and others are more laid back. Some people love a good fight, while others appreciate calm and peacefulness. Are you and the other person a good fit? If not, don’t force it.
4. What are the strengths and positive qualities each of you bring to the partnership?
5. Who will assume which roles and responsibilities? Who will do sales, manage employees, handle the accounting? Is this a fair division of labor? It may help to list each person’s preferred tasks (independent of each other). Identify where there will be sole control and where there is overlap. Ask yourselves what’s missing and still needed to run the organization.
6. When and how will you communicate with each other? Will you meet daily? Weekly? How will decisions be made if you disagree?
7. How will you share start-up costs, expenses, profit? How much income do each of you need?
8. What are your short-term goals? What do you each think the company will look like in three years when it’s humming along?
9. What are your long-term goals? Envision the conclusion and timing of the end of your business. Are you looking to make it a lifestyle business with a finite income goal, or do you want to be the next Facebook? What is your exit strategy?
10. Are both of you 100% committed to the partnership?

Even if you have known a person for years, a business partnership is very different than a friendship. Try collaborating on a few projects to get a feel for how you work together. A great book I often recommend to my clients is Partnership: Small Business Start-Up Kit by Daniel Sitarz. This book provides a pre-partnership worksheet, a partnership agreement, and other forms you’ll need to start a business together.

Coaching Call To Action

Thinking about a partnership?  Do you really know the other person?  What will you do this week to increase your knowledge of the other person and move closer to making the right decision for you?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

Whether you own your own company, manage others or are an individual contributor, you have a “boss.” Your boss may be your board of directors, your clients, and/or your manager.  No matter which category applies to you, this week’s Tip provides a great checklist for making your boss love you!

Quote of the Week

“Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.”

~ Eugene S. Wilson

Seven Ways to Make Sure Your Boss Thinks You’re Doing a Great Job

By Penelope Trunk

1. Know your boss’s priorities. If your boss is a numbers person, quantify all your results.  If your boss is a customer-is-first kind of guy, frame all your results in terms of benefits to the customer.
2. Say no. Say yes to things that matter most to your boss.  Say no to most everything else, and your boss will appreciate that you are focused on her needs.
3. Communicate the way your boss does. If your boss likes e-mail, use it.  If your boss prefers voice mail, phone in your updates.  Convey information to your boss in the way she likes so that she’s more likely to retain it.
4. Toot your own horn. Each time you do something that impacts the company let your boss know.  Whatever the mechanism, you need to let your boss know each time you achieve something that matters to her.
5. Lunch with your boss. If all things are equal, your boss will promote the person she likes the best.  So go out to lunch and talk about what interests her.
6. Seek new responsibilities. Find important holes in your department before your boss notices them.  Take responsibility for filling those holes and your boss will appreciate your foresight, but also your ability to do more than your job.
7. Be curious. Remember to take time to read and listen.  Then ask questions when they are not expected; you will make yourself more interesting to be around, and you will elicit fresh ideas from everyone around you.  Your boss will feel like having you on the team improves everyone’s work – even his own – and, after all, that is your primary job in managing up (Trunk, 2007, p. 145-147).

From: Trunk, P. (2007). Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success.  New York:  Warner Business Books.

Reprinted with permission from the OSU Leadership Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, (614) 292-3114, http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu

Coaching Call To Action

One of my readers responded to last week’s Tip, Success is Supposed to Be Fun and Rewarding, sharing that she had not been aligned with her boss’s priorities and goals and was not feeling the love.  If you are in a similar situation or want to ensure you don’t get there, take time this week to put two to three of these ideas into action.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

One of my roles as a coach is to help simplify business and life for my clients. While Boston is known as a center for learning and higher education, I find that bringing easy, straightforward tools to my engagements is most beneficial. In this week’s Tip, I share one of my coach’s tools, WIMI.

Quote of the Week

When you determined what you want, you have made the most important decision of your life. You have to know what you want in order to attain it.

~ Douglas Lurtan

WIMI – “What Is Most Important?”

By Natalie Manor

These four letters and what they represent can be life changing for you and those that you communicate with. The idea that we can communicate easily with anyone by finding out what is most important (WIMI) to them is dramatic for the following reasons. Rarely are you asked, nor do you ask anyone, what is most important to them. When asking WIMI, you can get to the core of any issue, project, meeting, or situation. By asking a person what is most important to them, you link directly into what they value. When you find out what someone values, you can develop a rapport that produces immediate results.

Natalie R. Manor, CEO is an author, business consultant, speaker and executive coach. Her company, Natalie Manor & Associates, is the ultimate resource for business leaders, executives, owners and managers who want to master their life and their business by Getting Clear, Getting Confident and Being Effective faster than ever before. You can register for her free bi-weekly articles at: http://www.nataliemanor.com/newsletter/subscribe.html

Coaching Call To Action

Try this communication tool and let me know what your results are. I’m always interested in how you create your successes.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

How can you build trust in a relationship?  Listen. This week, Loren Ekroth shares two ideas on how to be a better listener.  The first is about self-awareness and the second requires changing a behavior.  They are both great reminders!

I want to thank all of you for your emails, cards and calls in response to last week’s Tip about my father’s passing.  Your words of acknowledgement of my dad and sympathy to me provided great comfort.  Thank you.

Quote of the Week

” Really listening and suspending one’s own judgment is necessary in order to understand other people on their own terms… This is a process that requires trust and builds trust.”

~  Mary Field Belenky

Listen and Learn

By Loren Ekroth, Ph.D.

“Listening:  The Forgotten Skill” is not only a book title (1995).  It’s the truth.

If you want to leverage your interpersonal skills, set aside one normal weekday and do these 2 things:

1. Observe your habitual tendencies to listen (or not listen because you’re talking or your attention is elsewhere,)  and
2. Give the gift of attentive listening to others on this day.  Let it be OK not to share your opinion or point of view; not to argue; not to interrupt; not to say “Me, too.”

Dozens of experts agree that listening is one of the most underrated and least practiced conversation skills. (Including me.)

A few days ago we observed the birthday of that great American, Henry David Thoreau.  Here’s what he wrote about being listened to:

“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”

~  Henry David Thoreau, 1817 – 1862

We’ve also been honoring the 50th anniversary of the classic novel by Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”  Here’s what a character in that powerful book had to say about listening:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”

~  (Lawyer Atticus Finch speaking)

Finally, since the conversation doesn’t have to be all about me or you, we can make our priority #1 an attempt to understand the other person.  As Stephen Covey wrote in his modern classic, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,”

“Seek first to understand and then to be understood.”

So, on the day you choose to increase your awareness of and skill in listening,

Make no judgments
Don’t interrupt others
Don’t finish another’s sentences

Then people will feel much safer and more comfortable.

From “Better Conversations” newsletter by Loren Ekroth. Reprinted with permission. Copyright 2011. All Rights reserved. Dr.  Ekroth is creator of information products to improve conversation, such as “Small Talk Success Tips” and a free newsletter at www.ConversationMatters.com.

Coaching Call To Action

For all of you multi-taskers (me included), I challenge you to put everything aside and truly listen when you are in conversation with people this week.  What do you notice?

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

As I think about the upcoming Father’s Day celebration, I’m reminded of the ebb and flow of the intelligence of a parent as seen from the child’s perspective.  When the child is young, the parent is really smart,  and then the teen years hit.  As a parent, our opinion isn’t even worth considering.  Lo and behold, when the “child” hits 20 or so, we get smart again.  Children (and adults) find ways to ignore this wisdom.   This week’s article, Voices of Wisdom, connects me to the wisdom of my Dad (and Mom).  When I ask for their opinion and experience, they are a great source of wisdom. And the sharing that occurs at this level only enhances the relationship.

Quote of the Week

“Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.”
~ Anthony J. D’Angelo

Voices of Wisdom

There’s a proverb that says, “Wisdom shouts from the rooftops.” This is absolutely true, but it’s amazing how we continuously find ways to ignore it.  Wisdom is available to us in many forms and from many places.  One of the primary places to find it is in the people around us, whom we trust and respect.  But it is our responsibility to turn our attention to accessing that wisdom from the voices of people we trust and respect.  We are responsible for inviting their honesty, and if we do we’ll be tapping into an unlimited resource to help us on our journey toward self-discovery.  When we as leaders value honest relationships as a way of life, it has a ripple effect on how it affects others (Saccone, p. 40).

From:  Saccone, S. (2009).  Relational intelligence: how leaders can expand their influence through a new way of being smart.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Reprinted with permission from the OSU Leadership Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, (614) 292-3114, http://leadershipcenter.osu.edu.

Coaching Call to Action

How will you access the wisdom that sourrounds you?  Will you talk to you mentor, your partner, your employees?  What conversations will you have this week that allow the wisdom to flow?  What will you do to be ready to receive it?

What’s New

Sunday, June 20, 2010
Happy Father’s Day, Dads!

Thursday, June 24th – 9 am to 12:15 PM ET
Pounce on a Project V

Come to the last Pounce on a Project V – 2010 before the summer break.

Join Coach Andrea on Thursday, June 24th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern.

We will join as a group by phone and declare what you want to accomplish: tying up loose ends before you head off on vacation, updating your marketing plan, or writing new pages for your website. During the morning, the group will gather by phone a few times to check progress and get any support needed to finish with a bang. At noon, the group will celebrate their accomplishments.

Who says projects have to be boring and tedious? Bring your lightness and fun and join us for the energization.

To sign up or learn more, call or e-mail Andrea by noon on Wednesday, June 23rd. Feel free to share this with friends and co- workers, the more the merrier. (Cost of the program is only the cost of long distance phone calls.)

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

As a business owner, do you value the knowledge held by your employees? Of course!  Do you promote learning from others, the creation of new knowledge, and the transfer of knowledge between workers? Maybe not.  Loren Ekroth reminds us that conversation is the life-blood of the knowledge economy of today.  Conversation skills are key.  Read on to learn more about the impact of better workplace conversations.

Quote of the Week

“Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns.”
~ John Maurice Clarke

Better Workplace Conversations

The ability to create relationships of trust and sharing, so valued in family life, has taken on new importance in the workplace.  As our economy is based more on knowledge, the single most important asset in many organizations is the knowledge worker who has the ability to learn from others, create new knowledge, and transfer that knowledge to co-workers.

In organizations where informal conversation is seen as time-wasting, the rule has been to “Stop talking and get back to work.”   This rule may have been appropriate to the assembly lines of the industrial age, but it is not helpful in the workplace of the information age. The life-blood of the knowledge economy is conversation. Through all kinds of talk in the cafeteria and hallway, in bull-sessions around the water-cooler, phone visits, shop-talk over coffee, knowledge workers are often sharing critical business information.   Perhaps they’ll sketch a new idea on a napkin or ask a challenging question that will change another’s thinking so that a fresh insight comes to mind.

Data and information can be transmitted electronically, but it is nearly impossible to transfer knowledge by technological means alone.  That is because true “working knowledge” contains values, personal experience, expert insight, and emotion.

For one person to actually absorb knowledge coming from another person usually requires direct contact between people — what the military calls “face time.”  Second best can be “voice time” — contact by telephone.  To understand, we often need to get the “feel” of the knowledge as conveyed through all the senses.  Because knowledge is “alive” and has a personal flavor, it needs involvement of the heart and gut as well as the head.  It doesn’t thrive in hard-copy or electronic captivity.

Some time ago I had several serious computer problems.   I dutifully read through the detailed manuals and found some information that seemed relevant.   Then I spent a lot of time trying things — few of which I fully understood — worrying that I might create even worse problems.

Giving up, I came to my senses and hired a knowledgeable computer science student to help me for a few hours, and that made all the difference.  His “felt knowledge” conveyed a quiet confidence, and his simple, well-paced explanations made sense.  I experimented; he gently coached and corrected.  After a short time, I “got it” and was able to manage on my own with much more confidence than any manual could provide.

To share, acquire and even create working knowledge, we need the abilities to establish rapport and create trust, to suspend premature judgment, ask good questions, listen for connections among ideas, and honor diverse perspectives. And, certainly, we need to know when to talk and when to remain silent and receptive.   The new knowledge economy requires such conversational skills so that we can learn from each other.

Leaders in some of America’s most successful companies such as Intel have removed the barriers that used to discourage “learning conversations” and now actively reward employees for sharing knowledge.   They are encouraging “communities of practice,” informal groups where novices can learn from more experienced people.  They make it easy to have access to anyone who has the useful knowledge you need by arranging open spaces and eliminating closed doors.  Other companies are experimenting with new approaches like “Appreciative Inquiry,” an informal process for drawing out knowledge of what has worked best in the past.

Because the greatest portion of the knowledge assets in any organization is not in manuals and data bases but within the minds of its people, and because most knowledge transfer takes place informally, the “soft skills” for effective relating to other human beings will continue to be needed.  With the right skills and attitudes, a CEO can learn from a worker on the assembly line, a General Halftrack can pay attention to a lowly Lt. Fuzz, and left-brained engineers and right-brained customer service folks will be able to learn from one another.

Might a better rule for organizations in this new knowledge economy be:  “Stop working and talk it over”?

Loren Ekroth (c) 2010, all rights reserved. Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life. Complimentary newsletter, “Better Conversations,” at www.conversationmatters.com. Contact Loren@conversationmatters.com.

Coaching Call to Action

Where are you, as a business owner, encouraging communication and conversation between your employees?  What else could you do to take communication and knowledge transfer to the next level?  What’s possible for your company if people are truly sharing, talking and communicating with gusto?

What’s New

Thursday, June 24th – 9 am to 12:15 PM ET
Pounce on a Project V

Come to the last Pounce on a Project V – 2010 before the summer break.

Join Coach Andrea on Thursday, June 24th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern.

We will join as a group by phone and declare what you want to accomplish: tying up loose ends before you head off on vacation, updating your marketing plan, or writing new pages for your website. During the morning, the group will gather by phone a few times to check progress and get any support needed to finish with a bang. At noon, the group will celebrate their accomplishments.

Who says projects have to be boring and tedious? Bring your lightness and fun and join us for the energization.

To sign up or learn more, call or e-mail Andrea by noon on Wednesday, June 23rd. Feel free to share this with friends and co- workers, the more the merrier. (Cost of the program is only the cost of long distance phone calls.)

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

One of the keys to success in business and life is to have successful relationships. This week Chris Widener shares his recommended tool (building people up) for creating this result.  Whether you are a long time business owner or just opening your doors, you can profit from this skill.  To learn more about the benefits of praise and actions to take, read on.

Quote of the Week

“There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say and how we say it.”
~ Dale Carnegie

The Power of Praising People

by Chris Widener

One of the keys to success is to have successful relationships. We are not islands and we don’t get to the top by ourselves. And one of the key ways to grow successful in our relationships is to be “life-giving” people to others. Every person we meet, we either give life to or take life from. You know what I mean. There are people who encourage you and when you are done being with them you feel built up. Then there are others who you feel torn down by. Successful people are people who have mastered the art of building others up.

One of the ways we build people up is to praise them. There is power in praising people! Something begins to happen in them, in you, and in your relationship when you praise someone. Remember a time when someone told you something about yourself in a praising manner? It was great, wasn’t it? You probably liked that person more after they praised you, didn’t you?

Now I am not talking about praising people for the sake of praising people. I am talking about honestly looking for and praising positive character traits and actions of others around you. Don’t lie to people. If they have done something wrong, correct it, but when they do something right, praise it!

With that said, here are benefits of and ways to start praising people.

Benefits

• Your relationship grows. Life is about relationships. Family relationships, friends and co-workers. When we begin to praise people for their positive aspects, our relationships grow. It puts them, and us, on the fast track.

• Your leadership and influence grows. Who is going to have greater leadership and influence capacity in the lives of their followers, the one who tears down or the one who builds up?

• Stronger relationships and loyalty. When the person is appreciated and praised, they become fiercely loyal, because they know that you care for them, love them, and appreciate them. This will take you to success.

• Happier, more fulfilled people. I truly believe it is our job to build others up, and that they need it. It is a good thing to invest in the lives of others by praising and encouraging them. Even if we never get anything in return, it is the right thing to do to build up other people. Someone else will always come along to tear them down; the successful person will instill in them the power of praise!

Some Ways to Praise

Character traits
Is there someone you know who is joyful? Hard-working? Honest? Then let them know how much you appreciate that in them. You can do it with a word or a card, or a phone call. Say something like this, “You know, Tom, I think it is great that you are such a hard worker. It seems like you are always the first one here and the last one to leave. You really set a good example and I want you to know how much I appreciate that.” Simple!

Action
Same idea as above. “Sue, I don’t know if anybody else has told you this, but your work on the Johnson account was excellent. You have a wonderful ability to communicate the vision of the project, and that helps all the rest of us out in our roles and tasks. Thanks for that. It is greatly appreciated.”

Other ways you can show praise and appreciation are with a card, a gift or time off from work.

Make it your goal to praise at least five people a day. If you can, praise 10 people a day. Or perhaps you can try to praise everyone you come in contact with. It just takes discipline and a little work.

Any way you cut it, though, there is power in praising people. First for them, then for you!

Chris Widener is the President of Made for Success. www.ChrisWidener.com. Chris can be reached at Chris@MadeForSuccess.com.

Coaching Call to Action

Many of my clients are concerned with the “political” landscape they encounter inside organizations.  Part of the “art” of being politically savvy is to build relationships with people.  Praising people is a way to begin this process.  This week identify 2 or 3 key people you want/need to connect with and consider their admirable traits or actions that you can acknowledge.  If you want to practice this idea first, feel free to send me an email with your ideas.

What’s New?

Warm Welcome to Keefe Tech Continuing Education Attendees for Empowering Yourself!

A warm welcome to my new Coaching Tip of the Week subscribers who I met at Keefe Tech Wednesday night during my program “Empowering Yourself.” I enjoyed sharing my tools for gaining control of your life. Thank you all for participating so fully!

Thursday, March 25, 2010 – 9 am to noon ET
Pounce on a Project

Last month we worked on long range planning, accomplishing tasks that would have the biggest payoff, and preparing marketing materials. Here are what a few folks said:

• “An amazing morning of re-discovery!”
• “A great motivator to get a project done!”
• “I was able to get past the dread and get the momentum going by just starting!”

What project would you like to get on top of and accomplish this month? Come to Pounce on a Project III – - 2010. Join Coach Andrea on Thursday, March 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern. We will join as a group by phone and declare what you want to accomplish: getting taxes ready for the accountant, getting your new website finished, or getting rid of the piles of completed projects.

During the morning, the group will gather by phone a few times to check progress and get any support needed to finish with a bang. At noon, the group will celebrate their accomplishments. Who says projects have to be boring and tedious? Bring your lightness and fun and join us for the energization.

To sign up or learn more, call or e-mail me by noon on Wednesday, March 24th. Feel free to share this with friends and co- workers, the more the merrier. (Cost of the program is only the cost of long distance phone calls.)

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